Record ID No. |
6169 |
Author(s) |
Mujica M. I.*, Bueno C. G., Duchicela J. and Marín C. , 2019 |
Affiliation |
*DEpartamento de Ecologíca, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 8331150 Santiago, Chile. |
Title |
Strengthening mycorrhizal research in South America. |
Source. Vol.(no):Page |
New Phytologist. 224(2): 563-567. |
Categories |
Arbuscular Mycorrhiza |
Subjects |
Ecology General |
Sub-subjects |
Biodiversity |
Host |
NA |
Organism |
NA |
Country |
Chile |
Abstracts |
South America is a vast region of exceptional biodiversity that, in over 60° of latitude, encompasses an extraordinary range of ecosystems and ecological gradients. From the World's driest climate in the Atacama Desert, to one of the wettest in the Chocó biogeographic region; and from the World's largest drainage basin, the Amazon, to the World's longest mountain range, the Andes. Despite this impressive range of ecological conditions that can be seen as natural laboratories, many groups of organisms are not well studied in South America. Soil microorganisms are particularly under‐studied, especially mycorrhizal fungi, which are crucial for many ecosystem services, as nutrient cycling and food production. These knowledge gaps have limited the ability of scientists to address ecological and evolutionary questions related to the distribution and role of mycorrhizal fungi in the face of current environmental changes. The overall limitations for the development of such biodiversity studies in South America lie in an historic shortage of connections between the human and technical research resources. In this context, ecological research networks are increasingly used tools to overcome these and related constraints. The South American Mycorrhizal Research Network was established in 2017 as an horizontal and cooperative effort integrating researchers from the five continents, which aims to assess the continent's mycorrhizal biodiversity and its role in reducing the impact of current environmental changes. |